Short Bio

Dr. Masud Rahman is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science/Software Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and was advised by Prof. Dr. Chanchal Roy. He completed his Postdoc at the Polytechnique Montreal and was advised by Prof. Dr. Foutse Khomh.

Dr. Rahman leads the RAISE Lab at Dalhousie University. He is interested in the intelligent automation of software maintenance and evolution. Once a software product is released, it enters into the maintenance phase and goes through various major or minor changes. These changes are often triggered either by critical post-release bugs or by the requests for new features. To keep the software operational, the developers must resolve these bugs as quickly as possible. Similarly, to stay competitive in the market, they must add interesting features to their software at regular intervals. Unfortunately, these maintenance activities have never been easy despite 40+ years of extensive research! Software maintenance activities claim up to ~50% of the developers' time and cost the global economy billions of dollars every year. With the rise of popular but highly complex computing frameworks such as Large Language Models, Deep Learning, Cloud Computing, and Mobile Computing, software maintenance has become even more challenging and costlier.

Masud's research focuses on (a) a better understanding of software maintenance challenges with a particular focus on software debugging, code search, and code reviews, and (b) designing intelligent, automated, and cost-effective solutions to help developers overcome these challenges. In particular, Dr. Rahman is interested in the maintenance of three types of systems: Deep learning software systems, traditional software systems, and simulation modelling systems. He uses a blend of Software Engineering, Machine/Deep Learning especially Generative AI, Information Retrieval, Mining Software Repositories, and Natural Language Processing in his work. His research interests have been significantly shaped by his three years of experience as a professional developer in the software industry. Please check the RAISE Lab to learn more about his research.

To date, Masud has published 48 research papers, and his works got accepted in several major venues of Software Engineering including ICSE (A*), ESEC/FSE (A*), ASE (A*), TOSEM (A*), EMSE (A), ICSME (A) and MSR (A). Dr. Rahman received multiple prestigious awards such as Governor General's Gold Medal 2019, U of S Doctoral Thesis Award 2019, 2019 Best PhD Thesis Award (Computer Science), Dr Keith Geddes Award 2017, Dalhousie Belong Research Fellowship 2020, and the prestigious President Gold Medal 2010 (Bangladesh) for his research excellence and outstanding academics. To date, Masud's work received $475K+ (PI) and 4M+ (Co-PI, Co-applicant) in competitive research funding from various sources including NSERC Discovery Grant, Mitacs Accelerate International, NSERC Alliance, Climate Action and Awareness Fund, and Dalhousie Startup Fund.

Dr. Rahman is serving as a PC Chair of SANER 2025. Please consider submitting your high-quality papers there!

Check out Masud's:

CV

publications

awards

taught courses

services

released artifacts

Breaking News

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2024

1. October 2024: Our journal article -- Towards Enhancing the Reproducibility of Deep Learning Bugs: An Empirical Study - got accepted at EMSE (A). Please click here for the pre-print.
2. August 2024: Our RT paper - On the Prevalence, Evolution, and Impact of Code Smells in Simulation Modelling Software - got accepted at SCAM 2024
3. July 2024: Completed our collaboration work with Drinkable!
4. May 2024: Thanks to the students of CSCI 3130 and CSCI 6308 for their high-quality feedback and SLEQ ratings. More details can be found here
5. April 2024: Lareina Yang defended her honours thesis with flying colors.
6. March 2024: Masud Rahman will serve as a Program Co-Chair of SANER 2025, Montreal.
7. March 2024: Digital Research Alliance of Canada Grant was awarded (with Dr. Tushar Sharma)
8. March 2024: MITACS GRI Fellowship was awarded.
9. March 2024: Sigma Jahan, PhD student, received OpenThinker Award from Dalhousie University
10. March 2024: Sigma Jahan, PhD student, received Best TA Award from the Faculty of Computer Science
11. January 2024: Our collaborative work - Can We Identify Stack Overflow Questions Requiring Code Snippets? Investigating the Cause & Effect of Missing Code Snippets - got accepted at SANER 2024 (A)
12. January 2024: Our RT paper - Predicting Line-Level Defects by Capturing Code Contexts with Hierarchical Transformers -got accepted at SANER 2024 (A)

2023

1. Aug-Dec 2023: Students graduated: Parvez Mahbub (MCS), Ohiduzzaman Shuvo (MCS), Usmi Mukherjee (MCS), Callum MacNeil (BCS), and Shihui Gao (BCS)
2. June 2023: Our RT paper - Recommending Code Reviews Leveraging Code Changes with Structured Information Retrieval - got accepted at ICSME 2023 (A)
3. May 2023: Our journal article - A Systematic Review of Automated Query Reformulations in Source Code Search - got accepted at TOSEM (A*). Check pre-print.
4. March 2023: Received Best Reviewert Award 2022 from Journal of Systems and Software (JSS)
5. March 2023: Our Data showcase paper - Defectors: A Large, Diverse Python Dataset for Defect Prediction - got accepted at MSR 2023 (A)
6. March 2023: Our RT paper - Do Subjectivity and Objectivity Always Agree? A Case Study with Stack Overflow Questions - got accepted at MSR 2023 (A)
7. February 2023: Our research-track paper - Explaining Software Bugs Leveraging Code Structures in Neural Machine Translation - got accepted at ICSE 2023 (A*)
8. January 2023: Our RT paper - Towards Understanding the Impacts of Textual Dissimilarity on Duplicate Bug Report Detection - got accepted at SANER 2023 (A)
9. January 2023: Thanks to the students of CSCI3130/Fall 2022 for the high-quality feedback and suggestions. SLEQ: 4.03/5.00. Read more
10. January 2023: Happy New Year 2023!

2022

1. Year-end Summary:
   • Research Grants: Mitacs Accelerate (Awarded), CAAF (Co-applicant + Awarded), Google Scholar Program (Under review), and NSERC Alliance (Co-applicant + Under review).
   • Journal articles: 1 EMSE (accepted), 1 EMSE (under revision), and 1 TOSEM (under revision).
   • Conference papers: ICSE 2023 (A*), ICSE 2022 (Journal First), SANER 2023 (A), and ICSE 2023/tool (under review).
   • Taught courses: CSCI 3130:Software Engineering (SLEQ: 4.30/5.00), CSCI 6308: Software Maintenance & Evolution (SLEQ: 4.50/5.00)
   • Students under supervision: 3 PhD, 3 MCS, and 2 BCS.
   • Thanks to my families, friends, colleagues, and industry partners for their constant support. Big shoutout to my students for their great work over the year!
2. December 2022: Our RT paper - Towards Understanding the Impacts of Textual Dissimilarity on Duplicate Bug Report Detection - got accepted at SANER 2023 (A)
3. December 2022: Our research-track paper - Explaining Software Bugs Leveraging Code Structures in Neural Machine Translation - got accepted at ICSE 2023 (A*)
4. August 2022: Our CAAF grant has been awarded (as Co-applicant)! Grant total: $3,620,000. Read more
5. August 2022: Google Scholar citations reached 1000! Check out the Google Scholar Profile.
6. May 2022: Thanks to the students of CSCI 3130 and CSCI 6308 for their high-quality feedback. Super excited and grateful for SLEQ ratings: 4.30/5.00 and 4.51/5.00 respectively. If you are taking these courses coming Fall 2022 and Winter 2023, please check out the students' reviews.
7. March 2022: Our EMSE article - "Works for Me! Cannot Reproduce -- A Large Scale Empirical Study of Non-reproducible Bugs" - got accepted at EMSE. Please check here for the preprint.
8. February 2022: Our EMSE article - "The Forgotten Role of Search Queries in IR-based Bug Localization: An Empirical Study" - got accepted at ICSE 2022 (A*) Journal First track. Check out the preprint.
9. January 2022: Our Mitacs grant with industry parner -- Metabob -- has been awarded!
10. January 2022: Thanks to CSCI 3130/Fall2021 students for their constuctive feedback and ratings. See details
11. January 2022: Our journal article - "A Systematic Literature Review of Automated Query Reformulations in Source Code Search" - received a major revision from TOSEM
12. January 2022: Happy New Year 2022!

2021

1. Year-end Summary:
   • Research Grants: NSERC DG (Awarded), NSERC PDF (Awarded), Mitacs Accelerate (Under review), and Google Scholar Program (Under review).
   • Papers: Three journal articles (EMSE, JSS) and Two conference papers (SANER, ISEC) accepted. One EMSE article under revision and one TOSEM article under review
   • Courses: Taught one course - CSCI 3130:Software Engineering (SRI:4.54/5.00). Proposed one graduate course: CSCI 6308: Software maintenance & Evolution
   • Awards: MSR Distinguished Reviewer Award and one nomination for DAL President's Research Excellence Award.
   • Media: DAL News and USASK CGPS Magazine!
2. December 2021: Our collaborative work - The Reproducibility of Programming-Related Issues in Stack Overflow Questions - was accepted at EMSE for publication
3. November 2021: Our collaborative work - The Reproducibility of Programming-Related Issues in Stack Overflow Questions - was accepted at EMSE with a minor revision
4. August 2021: Our EMSE journal article -Works for Me! Cannot Reproduce -- A Large Scale Empirical Study of Non-reproducible Bugs- received a major revision.
5. August 2021: Got featured in the CGPS Imagine Magazine at the University of Saskatchewan
6. August 2021: Our journal article - Improved Retrieval of Programming Solutions With Code Examples Using a Multi-featured Score. - got accepted at JSS. Please click here for the preprint.
7. July 2021: Our journal article - The Forgotten Role of Search Queries in IR-based Bug Localization: An Empirical Study - got accepted at EMSE (A). Please click here for the preprint.
8. May 2021: Thanks to Winter 2021/CSCI 3130 students for their great ratings, feedback, and comments. See details
9. May 2021: Received MSR Distinguished Reviewer Award 2021!
10. April 2021: Our EMSE paper: The Forgotten Role of Search Queries in IR-based Bug Localization: An Empirical Study received a minor revision.
11. April 2021: Awarded the NSERC Discovery Grant 2021 with Discovery Launch Supplement! More details are here
12. March 2021: Nominated for Dalhousie University President's Research Excellence Award by the Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University.
13. February 2021: Got featured at Dalhousie News for the BELONG Award!
14. January 2021: NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded ($90,000) (Declined)
15. December 2020: Awarded Dalhousie BELONG Research Fellowship 2020. More details are here

2020

1. November 2020: NSERC Discovery Grant proposal submitted!
2. September 2020: Awarded TCSE Distinguished Paper Award 2020 for ICSME 2020 work!
3. August 2020: One technical-track paper accepted at ICSME 2020
4. July 2020: Officially joined Dalhousie University!
5. June 2020: RAISE Lab website launched!
6. June 2020: Joining Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor
7. May 2020: Virtual visit to University of Calgary
8. May 2020: Got Featured at the Department of Computer Science and the University of Saskatchewan
9. May 2020: Awarded Governor General's Gold Medal, the highest academic award that a PhD student can achieve! [More Details]
10. May 2020: Awarded Doctoral Thesis Award 2019 by the University of Saskatchewan (Physical & Engineering Science Area)
11. May 2020: IVADO Postdoctoral Funding proposal on reproducing deep learning bugs submitted successfully!
12. May 2020: PhD thesis was nominated for WAGS/ProQuest Innovation in Technology Award by the Graduate Awards Committee, University of Saskatchewan [National-Level Competition]
13. April 2020: Virtual visit to Dalhousie University
14. March 2020: PhD thesis was nominated for U of S Doctoral thesis award [University-Level Competition]
15. March 2020: Awarded The Best PhD Thesis Award 2019 by the Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan
16. March 2020: Business visit to Miami University
17. March 2020: Two technical track papers got accepted at MSR 2020 with 29.70% acceptance rate.
18. February 2020: My PhD Dissertation has been nominated for Best PhD Thesis Award at University of Saskatchewan
19. February 2020: Business visit to Queen's University
20. February 2020: Business visit to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
21. January 2020: Happy New Year! Two co-supervised works submitted to MSR 2020.

2019

1. October 2019: Submitted my NSERC PDF Proposal!
2. October 2019: Joined Polytechnique Montreal as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
3. September 2019: Defended my Ph.D thesis with a note of "the highest quality"
4. July 2019: PhD Thesis draft submitted to the advisory board, waiting for the defense date.
5. July 2019: Became a Canadian citizen!
6. June 2019: Done with PhD Proposal, officially became a PhD Candidate.
7. May 2019: Done with PhD Comprehensive exam
8. March 2019: Awarded prestigious ACM SIGSoft CAPS for ICSE 2019, Montreal
9. March 2019: Business visit to EECS, York
10. March 2019: Two of our research track papers got accepted: one at MSR2019 and one at ICPC 2019
11. January 2019: My paper has been accepted in the Doctoral Symposium track of ICSE 2019, Montreal, Canada
12. January 2019: Business visit at University of Manitoba

2018

1. November 2018: Our paper has been accepted by EMSE:-) Pre-print is coming soon!
2. September 2018: Our paper has been accepted by EMSE with minor revision :)
3. September 2018: I have been invited to ROSE Festival, co-located at ESEC/FSE 2018
4. July 2018: Our artifacts have been accepted at ESEC/FSE 2018
5. July 2018: Our artifacts have been accepted at ICSME 2018
6. June 2018: Our paper at ICSME 2018 has been nominated for TCSE Distinguished Paper Award :)
7. June 2018: Our work on query reformulation for bug localization was accepted at ESEC/FSE 2018, FL, USA
8. June 2018: Our work on query reformulation for general-purpose code search was accepted at ICSME 2018, Madrid, Spain
9. April 2018: Our work on query reformulation for code search, RACK has received a major revision from EMSE
10. Feb 2018: Our poster on query reformulation for bug localization was accepted at ICSE 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden

2017

1. September 2017: Our work on query reformulation using CodeRank and document structures was accepted at ASE 2017, Urbana-Champaign, USA